Nine more ethanol plants have achieved the U.S. EPA’s efficient producer status, bringing the total to 40. The agency posted the newly completed pathway assessments on its website in early July.READ MORESHARE

The USDA's Rural Business-Cooperative Service has announced it is soliciting applications for the Biorefinery, Renewable Chemical, and Biobased Product Manufacturing Assistance Program, which provides loan guarantees to eligible biorefining projects.READ MORESHARE

The most recent government data shows ethanol exports hit the lowest level so far this year while distillers grains exports to China set a new record, accounting for 74 percent of total U.S. DDGS exports, according to a RFA analysis.READ MORESHARE

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has issued the July edition of its Short-Term Energy Outlook, predicting ethanol production, which averaged 935,000 barrels per day last year, will remain near current levels in 2015 and 2016.READ MORESHARE

In late June, the U.S. Department of Energy released a request for information (RFI) seeking stakeholder input on several topics related to the use of biofuel blends in small engines. Responses are due Aug. 30.
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A group of two dozen biofuel trade groups and companies recently issued a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives urging them to reject an proposals that amend, repeal, or defund the renewable fuels standard (RFS). READ MORESHARE

The Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations has published a new agricultural outlook predicting that ethanol and biodiesel use will continue to grow over the next decade, although at a slower pace.READ MORESHARE

On July 2, the White House issued a memo on modernizing the regulatory system for biotechnology products to heads of the U.S. EPA, USDA and U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It outlines several actions the agencies will take over the next year. READ MORESHARE

Global ethanol supply and demand is set to be an area of focus on Monday morning during the U.S. Grains Council's 55th Annual Board of Delegates Meeting set to be held in Montreal from July 27 to 29, 2015.
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New documents filed with the U.S District Court in Washington D.C. show that the model used by the U.S. EPA to measure tailpipe emissions inaccurately blames ethanol for increased air pollution, according to the Urban Air Initiative.READ MORESHARE

Farmer leaders and staff members from the U.S. Grains Council, the National Corn Growers Association and the North Dakota Barley Council traveled to Cuba in late June to see first-hand potential opportunities for expanding U.S. coarse grain exports.READ MORESHARE

The same process plants use to respond to environmental stress acts as an on/off switch for a key enzyme in wood formation, NC State researchers have found. The discovery improves scientists' understanding of how lignin is formed and can be altered. READ MORESHARE

Using high-performance computing, a group of researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory provided insight into how the tightly wound network of molecules that make up the cell wall of plants for easier biofuel processing. READ MORESHARE

A team of investigators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Michigan State University have created a process for making the work environment less toxic for the organisms that convert cellulosic biomass into bioproducts. READ MORESHARE

Converting large tracts of the Midwest's marginal farming land to perennial biofuel crops carries with it some key unknowns, including how it could affect the balance of water between rainfall, evaporation and movement of soil water to groundwater. READ MORESHARE